Death Note: The challenge
by axxein
Summary: Near is dead. So a new Detective, K, comes and takes him place. With the help of Kim and shinigami Grim, will he be able to Catch Social reformist I and the second coming of Kira J?
1. Prologue

Death note: the challenge

Prologue

They told the truth. The government actually told the truth. That was the best way to conceal it I guess. Conceal what? Kira. No one in their right mind would believe the true story about Kira, I guess that's why it's so perfect. It's the biggest conspiracy that's not a conspiracy. Yet it leaves one to wonder, will they cover this the same way?

"I'm bored." Whines Oni, crushing a skull in the desolate wasteland they call a world, the shinigami world.

Oni is a shinigami. He enjoys games, probably because that's the only thing to enjoy in the shinigami world. He's tall with grey skin and yellow eyes with purple iris. Most of his skin and lips are white. His 'clothes' are what appear to be a loose black robe stitched around his neck, fully concealing everything except his head and hands. His hands are dead white, and the 'robe' is also appears to be stitched to the top of each wrist, and slacks about a foot. His feet are bare, but are completely black. He has what appears to be a tattoo of a skull on his forehead, and short spiky blond hair.

"Ahh shut it, you think we aren't?" asks Lilith in a harsh tone.

Despite her sudden hostility, Lilith and Oni are friends. She often complains of the slow life as a shinigami, and often times wishes something interesting would actually happen. She loves challenges. She also has grey skin and 'wears' a white 'shirt' stapled down the middle, around her waist, and drape about her fore arms and spike out along with a black 'skirt' with downward spikes at the end, with a belt weaved in and out and white 'pants' that drape downwards. Her feet are white and match her skin color and appear to have what is similar to falcon claws for toes. Her eyes are red with black iris. Her lips are purple and her face has one black arrow tattooed down her right side of her face, though her eye, and another going up her face parallel to the other, going through her other eye. She has short, black, straight hair.

"Bored to hostility huh? I don't blame you, absolutely nothing to do here." said Grim sympathetically.

Grim is neither friend nor enemy of either of the others. He knows of them, and leaves it at that. His usual activities include lazing around and watching humans though the hole in the shinigami world. He 'wears' a cape sewn from his right shoulder, almost always completely covering his right arm with only his hand showing.

His other arm has what appear to be stiches going fully down his arm, into his palm. His torso is covered completely by a black 'shirt' which drapes below his waist, but doesn't cover either arm at all. His 'pants' resemble black leather. He has what appear to be stiches down his side of his face, crossing his eye, and more fully across his face on his nose. His hair is black and is extremely messy. His lips are also black. It seems to spike in some places, but curl in others. His eyes are black with a red iris.

"You three are fools." Ryuk cackles landing on the ground from flight with his black shinigami wings.

"Coming from the joker himself." Grim laughs.

"What do you want Ryuk?" asked Lilith with suspicion.

"Any of you want to play a new game?" Ryuk asks.

"What kind of game?" Oni asks with delight at the thought of a different game.

"It involves going to the human world." Ryuk starts off in a roundabout way.

"And?" Grim asks, with his interest at an apparent peak.

"You give your notebook to a human, and you pit them against each other. Mind you, you'll most likely never have the experience I had with Light, but you can give it a try." Ryuk says.

"Are there any more rules to this game?" Lilith asks.

"I dunno, it's up to you really. I won't be participating, only watching. I've had my fun in the human world for now." Ryuk sighs. The three shinigami look at each other eyes narrowed, ready for a competition.

"Rules." Lilith says simply.

"No giving the note to a human with an incredible amount of resources." Oni says.

"In other words, they need to be average?" asks grim with a slight loss of interest.

"Not average, but not…" Oni trails off.

"When I met light, he was merely a smart high school student." Ryuk says.

"Like that." Oni says.

"I think I understand" Lilith says, and Grim nods in agreement.

"What about the region?" Grim asks.

"With the humans, how they speak depends on where they live. Language they call it." He says.

"Well it should be technologically adept." Oni says.

"Agreed." Lilith says.

"The united states then?" Grim asks.

"Not a bad choice. I met light in Japan, but the size of the U.S. dwarfs japan, it would be good for the three of you to have distance." Ryuk says.

"How should they use the notebook?" Oni asks.

"However they see fit." Lilith says.

"This will be fun." Oni says.


	2. A New Kira?

"Sup, Juu-biotch!" Laughs the punk in leather, Ed Huligan. Juubei's expression remained the same.

Juubei is a worshipper of Kira. It's not surprising, one man having the ability to kill all the world's most famous criminals in almost an instant, of course he will be worshipped. Churches have been established praising Kira at this point, although his death has been reported, some refuse to believe he is dead. In the United States these churches are only aloud due to the separation of religion and government. Juubei is a mere one of these church goers who believes there will be a second coming of Kira, or that he's not dead at all. His hair is black, with a two inch braid on the left side. He has dull green eyes, a simple grey shirt, with dark blue jeans and a belt, with a wristband on his right forearm. He wears white tennis shoes with a blue stripe design. He's an exchange student from Japan who has everything going for him, including being the smartest kid in the state.

"Fuck off Ed." Julie says in a harsh tone.

Julie is his girlfriend. She has long blond straight hair, blue eyes, and perfect tan skin. She usually wears a belly shirt and white jeans and black tennis shoes. She's the most attractive girl in school, with a bit of brains to boot.

"Hey Julie, dump the wuss and get with a real man." Ed said pointing his thumb to himself.

"A man actually amounts to something in his lifetime." Juubei counters.

"What'd you say to me?" Asks Ed.

"I didn't stutter. You're just like the rest of them; the rest of the scum that should be rid from the earth. Now that Kira's gone there's no one left to do it." Juubei says. Ed just glares on with a sour face.

"Well?" Asks Juubei.

"Fuck Kira I ain't afraid of him!" Ed finally bursts out.

"You're not now that he's dead. When criminals were dying you were almost the perfect child, because you were afraid. You were so scared you even waited three years before your first vandalism." Juubei says.

"Pricks like that piss me off." Julie says.

"Pricks like that piss everyone off." Juubei says.

"So you need a ride home again?" Juubei asks.

"Actually I was thinking we could spend the rest of the day together." Julie says.

"If it's not too much trouble." She finishes.

"I'd love that." He says with a smile.

"Well let's go!" She says scurrying to the school parking lot.

"Can't wait for me can ya'?" He asks, quickly catching up to her.

"I love your car." She said getting in.

"It's not a car. It's a JEEP." He corrects her with great pride.

Juubei is easily the richest kid in the district, and like every rich kid, he has a kick ass car. Scratch that, it's not a car, it's a jeep. The bi-engine, sixteen cylinder Jeep Hurricane, easily the most powerful, most capable, most versatile vehicle available. The interior is like no other vehicle. Black leather seats, the stick, or rather sticks are where they'd normally be, one for shifting gears, and one for reverse, standard, and everything in between . The rest of the interior is black and steel, with a chrome look. There's a compass, gas and oil pressure gauge, along with the speedometer, odometer, and lastly a gauge for the RPM. Tons of buttons, for the radio. The space-age levers are for the wheels, to control which way they turn, mostly for fancy tricks. The inside is spotless, and looks like it's recently been polished, as it looks every day.

"Watch this." Juubei says as he pulls out doing a reverse doughnut, and exits the student parking lot driving sideways.

"You're always so risky." Julie sighs.

"I know you love that about me." He smiles at her. She tries not to smile, but ends up cracking.

"Come on, we can do whatever you want." He says with genuine sincerity.

"The park, it's not too far away." She says.

"Where we first met." He recalls correctly.

"You remember! That's so sweet." She smiles, putting her hand on his knee.

"Of course I remember! I would never forget meeting a woman as beautiful as you." He says.

"Stop." She says blushing. They arrive at the destination after a few moments and begin walking in the park, which almost resembles a cross between a forest in its own right.

"So whatcha wanna do?" Juubei ends up asking again.

"I'm happy I'm just with you." She says while they hold hands and continue to walk on the park trail.

"Wanna watch the sunset?" Juubei asks.

"Oh can we? That would be so romantic." Julie answers.

"Sure. I know the perfect place to." He says, picking her up bridal style, and begins a mild jog carrying her, while she blushes profusely. His jog comes to a steady walk as he starts up an incline. Once he reaches the top of the hill They're there alone, with the shade of a single tree, and a great view of the sun about to set.

"Wow, how'd you find this place?" She asks.

"I have my ways." He says smiling, with a shrug as they both sit under the shade of the tree.

"It's so beautiful." Julie says in astonishment.

"Not as beautiful as you." He says, suave in his voice.

"I wonder how many of those compliments you actually mean." Julie remarks, slightly leaning toward him.

"All of the above." He says, leaning in and gently kissing her, as a brushing sound is heard in the tree leaves above.

"What was that?" Julie asks, not concerned, but rather wondering why there was no such noise before.

"A squirrel?" Juubei asks.

"Why would a squirrel live in the one secluded tree?" She asks.

"Good point." Juubei says, standing up, squinting his eyes, looking into the tree.

"See anything?" Julie asks.

"Yeah actually." He says taking a few steps back from the tree. He gets a quick start up the tree using some parkour skill, grabs a tree branch and pulls himself up.

"Be careful." Julie warns as he falls from the tree and lands on his feet moments later.

"It's a notebook. Death Note." He says reading the cover, he soon begins flitting though the pages.

"How-to-use, and names and causes of death on some of the ladder pages, before that it's just chicken scratch." He says scanning the How-to-use.

"Creepy. Who would make such an elaborate prank? It's stupid." Julie shuns the thought away.

"Huh, sounds like the thing Kira used." Juubei chuckles.

"Stop, you know I'm not into all that stuff." She says.

"Maybe I should test it on Ed." Juubei laughs.

"That's not a bad idea." She says jokingly.

"Should I?" He pulls out a pen.

"Go crazy."

"Ed Huligan, cause of death…" He says as he writes, but comes to a pause, lacking a fitting death.

"Car crash?" Julie asks.

"Car crash. Details are he was driving home from school, when he failed to pay attention to a stop sign, and got hit in the process, causing almost instant death." He says, as he finishes the writing.

"Almost instant death?" Julie asks.

"Hey if it's real, at least we won't suffer long." Juubei says.

"True. So what are you going to do with it?" Julie asks.

"Keep it, I can look up the names, see if it's real, and if it's not then free notebook." He says throwing it in his jeep then sitting back down in time for the couple to successfully enjoy the sunset together.

LATER THE NEXT DAY…

"Did you hear? Ed died." A shaking Julie said to Juubei near the soda machines, their usually hangout along together.

"How?" Asked Juubei.

"Take a guess." She said, as his eyes turn wide.

"So this is…" He lets the comment hang in the air.

"Do you still have it?" She asked.

"Yeah right here." He said, pulling it out of his bag.

"What should we do with it?" Julie asked, holding it.

"Use it." A foreign voice calls out, scaring Julie causing her to scream.

"Where are you?" A startle Juubei asks.

"Up." The voice says simply.

Juubei looks up and sees a shinigami floating above his head.

"I'm surprised she didn't see me when she first walked up, must have been the first time touching the notebook." Oni says aloud as the two stare in disbelief as he slowly starts his descent next to the boy.

"What are you?" Juubei asks.

"Im'ma shinigami. Names Oni. We usually come within thirty-nine days of whoever finds a death note, but I was in a hurry." He introduces himself.

"You must be the owner." He says, pointing at Juubei with his long boney fingers.

"Owner?" Julie asks.

"Of the death note." Oni finishes.

"What are you here for?" Juubei asks.

"A fun time, I do expect you to win after all." Oni says.

"Win what?" Juubei asks.

"You'd call it a challenge. At the current time three notebooks were dropped into your world. The three people who find those note books are to attempt to kill the other two." Oni explains.

"Why?" Julie asks.

"Entertainment." Oni simply answers.

"That's horrible! Why would we agree to that?" asks Julie.

"'Cause if you don't you'll die." Oni says simply.

"What's your name?" Juubei asks.

"Oni." He answers.

"It fits you perfectly." Juubei glares.

"What's Oni mean?" Julie asks.

"In a nutshell, demon." Juubei answers.

"Oh, that's not very nice." He sulks.

"So what do we do?" Julie asks.

"This is our chance to change the world, and either way you look at it, if we refuse we'll die, if we participate, we'll have a chance for survival, and a chance to change the world as well." Juubei answers.

"You know I'm not into the whole Kira thing, but I don't think I have much of a choice." She gulps.

"I'm glad." Oni smiles.


	3. civilized

Chapter 2: Lilith

I van's house 

"Shut up already." He says to his barking dogs, opening the door letting them out, par his usual routine; the three dogs rush outside. He grabs the small bowl, and grabs several handfuls of birdfeed and throws them in. He lets one chicken out of the makeshift chicken pen, and opens the other pen. He throws in the bird feed with the pen occupied by both turbo and Eleanor in it. He grabs their spilled water dish and throws it on the ground in front of the bird pens. All three chickens run along and peck at the ground as the dogs prod at them with their noses. He goes and grabs more bird feed, and puts it in the empty pen occupied usually only by the lone Squiggy and grabs his, also spilled water bowl and throws it on the ground. He grabs the hose and sprays both water bowls and eventually fills them, and puts them in the cages. He chases the chickens back in their pens, simply by walking behind them.  
>"Mutts!" He calls the dogs, as two run up to him. He opens the door an lets them in. He steps off the porch with a mush, into the soft, wet dirt.<p>

"Charlotte!" He calls.  
>"Damn dog." He says under his breath, as he goes in search for the missing dog. He passes his empty, dirty, relatively small pool, his broken go-cart, and the shed, into the back yard.<br>"Charlotte!" He calls again, and he hears the rustling of leaves. He walks past the only tree of his backyard, following the rustling sound.  
>It isn't what you think; he lives in the middle of a small, boring city in the middle of boring Arkansas. Hope. Ironic considering the demeanor of most of the people here. Some are friendly, but most just want to leave once they graduate, or wish they left once they did. Others aren't so friendly, and have an instant dislike for the younger ones with a chance to leave.<p>

He wasn't born here, he was actually born in the far north, but he's already sick of everyone here. He's a person that could leave this place without a second thought. He holds almost no emotional connection with anyone. He has a few friends, but he knows they'll split soon. That is fine with him, he believes life and death holds a similar course, while he tries to find existence in the miserable thing he calls a life.

He can easily pick favorites and rarely shows emotion. He tends towards the intelligent but holds envy towards the popular, simply because they're not dreading one day to the next. He dearly hates them, not because they're popular, but because they're the reason society is at its worst. Where he lives fits the description of a society, yet there is one thing overlooked. No one wishes to be civilized in the slightest. He often wonders what the point of a society is, when people behave like so. The dog comes back, wagging her tail, a black notebook in her mouth.

"Charlotte, drop it." He says as the dog holds it firmly in her mouth. He bends over to grab a firm hold.

"Now." He says in a commanding tone as the dog lets go, disappointed in losing her newfound toy. The boy flips the note book around to find the cover, labeled 'Death Note' in a font he's not familiar with. He admits to himself his interest is peaked as he flips though, finds only some language he cannot understand, and doesn't have the patience or know-how to decode, followed only by a seemingly infinite amount of blank pages. He reaches the back and finds a 'How to Use' which he reads and immediately thinks is a joke. He holds it back to the dog, when a sudden thought hits him. What if it's real? The dog almost grabs hold as he yanks it back with a sharp pull. He figures even if it's not real, it's a free notebook as he puts it in the back of his pants and lets his shirt fall over it, concealing it from his family. He walks inside as the dogs rush in his filthy house.

"We're cleaning the house today." His mom says, and so continues the cycle. In three days it will be just as messy, and in four everyone will clean it again. He has no idea how it gets as messy, other than the inescapable presence of four dogs in his house, and half as many cats. He heads towards his room.

"Did you not hear me?" She asks angry.

"I heard you; I'm just busy right now." He says, matching her degree of anger.

"Busy with what?" She asks, with the same anger.

"Busy takin' care of your mutts, busy takin' care of your chickens, and busy takin care of my room." He says, leaving her to clean up the mess of the rooms he never goes into, as he heads into the one he does. His room. He locks himself in here, day and night, preoccupying himself on the internet, or on his Xbox, just wishing for the day he can leave this god-forsaken town. He enters the room and slams then locks the door.

"I wish he would let me understand him." His mom sighs, apparently caught between being a mom, and understanding her own sons disposition.

He pulls out the Death Note and flips through it, trying to decide whom to test it on. He decides to relax and turn on the Television.

"Serial killer and sociopath David Berkowitz was found dead with a heart attack this morning in his prison cell. Was this the work of a second Kira? Now more with the Famous Kira specialist William McKay." The news anchor reported.

"McKay, do you believe this is the work of a second Kira?" Asked the news anchor, beginning the interview.

"I do, it would be blind not to think so." McKay answered.

"And what are your thoughts concerning this matter?" the Anchor asked.

"Well, what startles me most is the question of whether or not the real Kira was caught in the first place. On one hand, why wait to kill Berkowitz now? The original Kira seemed to have only killed criminals who showed no remorse for their victims, the ones who meant what they did. However Berkowitz was a born-again Christian, who believed God had forgiven him, who even had his own website praising god, and the virtue of forgiveness. This Kira, doesn't seem to care. But on the other hand…" McKay paused.

"Who else has Kira's power?" McKay asked shaken.

"And what do you think about the notebook story the Japanese and American governments passed off to the rest of the world?" The anchor said, instantly reminding Ivan about everything he had been taught concerning the Kira investigation. He didn't need to hear anymore, he turned the television off and soaked in the reality of the situation. He knew there was a new Kira. Killing off all the bad guys, he felt beaten to the punch. However, he wasn't shaken by this at all. The criminals gone? Good, now we can focus on the real problem, society. I will kill all the people ruining society, no matter how widely known, or how invisible they may be, but let's first be known. He sits down at his computer and looks up the names of several famous celebrities, something he never thought he would find himself doing. He hated most of them with his very being. Not the ones purely in movies, but the ones who did crazy things just to get attention. The ones who got married for ten seconds then get divorced. He wanted them gone, not only that, he wanted total reform. He wanted to give them a reason to be of public interest, other than the fact they were in a few shitty movies. They would commit suicide, and not only that, they will leave detailed yet carefully worded suicide notes.

He woke up the next day, in anticipation of what he had done. He skipped school that day, unbeknown to his family and watched the news, with the television turned almost muted and hearing about the 'tragic' deaths of 'three of our most beloved actors and film-makers' And the notes they left behind.

"And again we turn out attention to William McKay, Kira specialist." The same anchorman from the day before says.

"This is not Kira. This is a completely different entity calling for social and civil reform." McKay starts, without a question.

"And what makes you think that?" Asks the stoic Anchorman.

"What I have here are copies of the suicide notes from all the celebrities. If you read between the lines, or rather, every other line, you can see a startling message." McKay says.

"And would you read every other line for us?" The Anchorman asks.

"I should read all the messages, in order. This is the first." McKay starts, holding the paper, shaking, as Ivan smiles, glad to know his work won't be going unknown.

"'I'm sick of living in this world. I cannot deny the presence of a second Kira, and only wish to help. This world has made me the laughingstock for the longest time. I am separate, but I wish reform- I.' and the first cuts off there. Everyone has their eyes on me, and I hate it because I cannot take two steps without being asked for an autograph, or someone taking a picture of me. I may sound liberal, but I hate this world and the society we live in, because fun can be civilized. Although, I am not sure how to be civilized and so this world is better off without me. What's the point of civilization if the people refuse to be civilized? I-' the second ends there." McKay says.

"Interesting, it seems this one leaves his signature at the end of each letter." The anchorman says.

"Correct, the up until the third most of these letters make sense; this one shakes me." McKay says. Ivan smiles in delight, knowing his masterpiece is about to come to life.

"I'm about to do something horrible. Killing this one off is but a small task. Taking my own life is one of the biggest sins there is. I will have reform, and with this new Kira, I don't have to worry about criminals. I've hated every little thing I've done since the start of my career. Whereas I love everything I will be doing. I must end my life here. As Kira ends the lives of criminals, I must end the lives of the ones against social progress. Only then will I be forgiven by the world. Only then will the world be cleaned of filth. Only I have the power to end myself. Only I have the power to change the world. I-' the third one ends. It seems like he acknowledges the presence of a second Kira, and that he wants that Kira to continue killing the bad guys, as he kills whatever is a threat to "social progress." His presence is deniable in the first two letters, but in this one, there's no denying it." McKay says.

"Thank you, if you want to comment on this seg-" the news anchor trails off as Ivan turns off the television.

"I take it you're happy with your results?" Lilith asks the boy, as his eyes grow wide eyed, thinking he's been caught by the police already. He turns around revealing himself a shinigami. He calms himself; maybe the being from another dimension is better than the police.

"Quite." He starts simply.

"So what are you here for? The notebook back? My soul? What do you want?" He asks, suspicious.

"You aren't too friendly are you? By the way, what's your overall goal?" The shinigami asks.

"I asked a question first." He said.

"So you should answer first." He said with a glare.

"You realize I could kill you with my own notebook." The shinigami said calmly.

"So do it, I figure that's what you're planning to do anyway, either kill me, help me, or get out of my way." The boy says calmly. The shinigami was impressed by the amount of guts the boy had, and decided to answer him question.

"I'm simply here to play a game. I just want to watch." She says.

"What?" The boy asks, suspicious.

"I'm answering your question. I just want to watch. Three notebooks were dropped into this world, the first to kill the other two wins the notebook they have." Lilith says.

"Interesting." The boy chuckles.

"Gives a new meaning to the term 'guardian angel'." He finished.

"Well?" The shinigami asked.

"Aren't you going to answer my question?" She asks again.

"My plan is to reform society, and the world." The boy smiles holding the notebook in front of his face.

"You're no longer afraid of me?" The shinigami asks almost being able to feel his fear dissipate.

"Should I be?" The boy counters.

"The shinigami look on, with a good feeling of victory. She never thought she would find a human who could say they aren't afraid of a shinigami."

"Have you heard? A new Kira has apparently surfaced." A familiar voice belonging to a FBI agent says.

"Yes of course. I've been reading into it. Once I'm able to get out of this hotel room and away from this damn murder case I'll be focusing my attention of that." Near says, standing up to put the last die on a skyscraper made of dice.

"Yes about that, do you have any suspects yet?" The FBI agent asks.

"I think we both know exactly who the killer is." Near says, making eye contact with the FBI agent as he attempts to pull out a gun; unfortunately the FBI agent pulls theirs faster. The two maintained eye contact for a moment, then Near and his skyscraper both fall.


	4. one bullet shy

Chapter 3

K and the death of near

"As you all know, someone needs to replace Near." Vladimir Kota, the head of the FBI, says addressing the four FBI agents in front of him. They all looked at each other, thinking the same thing.

"Who will it be?" Max Mar'tee asks anxious, voicing their unanimous thought.

"It won't be any of you." Vladimir's eyes narrowed. The four looked at each other once more, some a bit agitated.

A woman cleared her throat, swallowing thickly because of the tension.

"Then…who?" She, Rachel Vega, asks with a pause.

Vlamdir smiled, pleased with who the successor was.

"Allow me to introduce, K, the sole successor of Near." Vladimir announces Waving his hand in the hair overzealously. "K you can come in now." He calls.

"Don't tell me what to do." A voice called from the other room. It's pitch was odd. It sounded childish due to the statement, but rather elegant in the same fashion. A young man, who all the agents assume dot be Kid, enters the FBI room, folding back the last piece of a paper swan.

He's wearing white jeans, and a long sleeved black shirt that covers most of his hands with the collar falling off one shoulder, and military boots that didn't seem to fit with the rest of his attire. He also adored sunglasses, despite being indoors. His skin is a pasty white and unkempt shaggy black hair.

"Who's this?" Josh Va-tee asks.

"You may address me as Kid." The youthful, but strangely broken boy answers, voice still holding that hallow elegance.

"Could you be? Are you…from Whammy's house?" Matsuda Touta asks, Kid's eyes, though hidden, grow wide.

"Interesting. You know about Whammy's house?" Kid asks.

"Yes, I worked with L until… well, that's not important." He says smiling, trying to ease the tension.

"Someone who worked with the real L, wow." Kid says to himself, as his eyes bounce back and forth, unsure for a moment.  
>"Anyway, I'm here to investigate the murder of my mentor, Near." Kid said, snapping out of his trance about as quick as he went in it.<p>

"We're about a twenty minute drive away from the crime scene, want me to drive you?" Matsuda asks.

"As much as I would love to see his dead body, no. I don't think I'll need to leave this room to solve this case, or the one he was working on." The boy says, pulling out his laptop.

"Does this kid really know what he's doing?" Josh asks, a little doubtful.

"He knows more about what he's doing then any of us probably ever will." Vladimir says, displaying his confidence, and probably a tad bit of pride, in the boy.

"So what exactly is Whammy's house?" Rachel asks, cocking her head to the side.

"Well it's a-"

"Don't answer that." Kid interrupts, holding his hand up to make his point clear. Enough people knew about it already. He was actually a bit surprised that Matsuda worked with L, knew about Whammy's house, and was fully prepared to blab about it in front of three untrustworthy people. Matsuda nodded quietly and looked down, realizing his mistake, then Kid continued glaring at the screen, followed by the rapid clicking of buttons in succession.

"The first thing I'm going to ask you all to do is hand over your guns." Kid starts, putting his laptop aside on Vladimir's desk and one by one they put their guns on the desk next to the laptop.

"What's all this about? We aren't going to shoot you." Rachel says, a bit indignant.

"The killers gun should tell us who the murderer is." Kid clarified, picking up one gun and unloading all the bullets. "That one was full. You're off the hook." He says, handing the empty gun back to Rachel.

"The killer shot Near. So, their gun should be missing a bullet, unless they reloaded their gun or didn't report something, which is strictly against FBI regulations." Kid said, emptying another gun, as each bullet one by one hit the floor, and hands the now empty gun to Matsuda. Of course, Kid knew that a murderer wasn't exactly against breaking an FBI rule. It would be highly unlikely for him to actually find something by doing this. It was mostly a show, an act for the real killer, which Kid had already pinpointed.

"But if it was one of us, wouldn't the killer have thought ahead?" Matsuda asks.

"Probably, but we should still check every small detail." Kid lied, littering the floor with bullets as he hands the third empty gun to Max and makes eye contact with Josh.

"One left." Kid says, emptying the gun, slipping one bullet in his sleeve, and putting the rest on the table instead of dropping them to the floor like the others. "One bullet missing." Kid says certainly.

"What? No! That's impossible." Josh said aloud. He knew he used a different gun to kill that albino freak! It was in the back of his pants as they spoke.

"Tell me, what do you know about Whammy's house?" Kid asks.

"I-I don't know anything about Whammy's house." He admitted.

"Are you the highest ranking FBI agent that was working with Near?" He directs cleverly, leading the killer to a confession.

"Yes." He admits once more, not following along.

"So, without any knowledge of Whammy's house, it would be safe to assume you'd believe yourself to be the one to replace Near?" Kid asked.

"Not necessarily, Matsuda did work with the original L and does know something about the Death note, most people don't even believe it exists." He futilely tried.

"That knowledge does not make him qualified to be the successor of L's successor." Kid said bluntly, rolling his eyes behind the reflective blue lenses.

"Tell me, as a head FBI agent, what do you specialize in?" Kid asked.

-Poison- A recording of Nears voice said over the laptop at the click of a button.

"Honestly, I don't even need to be asking you these questions to be putting you behind bars. Near left me enough evidence in a few voice recordings alone. It's almost ridiculous to even think that my expertise was needed, but seeing as this was Near…" Kid mumbled, drifting off a bit before clicking on something else.

-The killer uses poison. I ruled out all civilian possibilities, some due to the lack of know-how, others the lack of expenses, not to mention lack of ability to gain a large number of lethal poisons and security clearance. The building I am currently residing in was built by L with the intention of keeping Kira out. That and lack of civilian motive. I've started searching the backgrounds of my own FBI agents, and, if I had done this sooner, I could have had this case solved in a day's time. If I am to die, He would have the most to gain, at least from his knowledge. He also has the most knowledge of poison. By tomorrow, if I'm dead, especially by any means other than poison, it means he killed me. I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to solve this case without these voice recordings, but by tomorrow, my killer may very well be Josh Va-tee.- The recording ends.

"No! I refuse to let it end this way." Josh yells, pulling out the gun in the back of his pants, as Vladimir pulls out his and shoots him once in the back; Josh falls on the floor.

Kid moves toward the wheezing body, prying the gun from the soon-to-be corpse's hand, emptying the cartage.

"One bullet shy." Kid muses, almost wishing there had been more to Near's death than that.


End file.
